


I Want The Assembled Might Of UNIT To Know...

by UniverseOnHerShoulders



Series: Take Me To The Stars [26]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bets & Wagers, Coming Out, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-10-21 07:57:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20690135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UniverseOnHerShoulders/pseuds/UniverseOnHerShoulders
Summary: Kate Stewart has a very important email to send to her colleagues at UNIT. One that will set tongues wagging, but settle a fair few bets.





	I Want The Assembled Might Of UNIT To Know...

**Author's Note:**

> Pure, pure silliness.

Kate Stewart groaned and put her head in her hands, looking down at the keyboard of her ancient desktop PC and wondering, for the thousandth time, why exactly she was doing this.  
Well, she _knew _why she was doing it, but it was more the why of the _how _that she was stumbling on. She needed her colleagues to know the truth about her; she craved it, yearned it, longed for it with each breath she took. It weighed on her like a physical pressure, forcing her shoulders towards the ground as she strode around the historical edifice she called her place of work. So, the decision had been made to tell people. But why had she decided to opt for this medium? Well, she had little reasoning for it other than convenience and the ability to reach the masses with a single click. It would save the awkwardness of repeated truth telling, and would instead get both straight to the point and straight to each and every person in UNIT. It would be done in one fell swoop, one single ripping-off of the metaphorical plaster. 

On the other hand… telling a load of extremely butch blokes with guns the truth about herself? Absolutely terrifying. Horrifying idea, and slight career suicide. They’d never look at her the same way again, and she wasn’t sure if she was entirely ready for the jeers and taunts she would undoubtedly receive over the coming weeks. She supposed, however, that she could always fire anyone that made inappropriate comments about her, and the thought of doing so cheered her enormously. 

Her father, if he was here, would tell her to be brave, and to follow her truth. Maybe not in so many words – ‘follow your truth’ was a phrase she’d picked up as the by-product of many late nights binge-watching terrible American boxsets on Netflix – but he would urge her to follow her heart and do what she needed to do, and what she needed to do was this. She’d lived a lie for far too long; tried to conform and play a litany of parts that were very much not her, and had left her increasingly miserable by turn. Wife. Stay-at-home mother. Desk worker. None of the monikers had fit her properly, and she’d shrugged them off one by one until only one unwanted, ill-fitting label remained.

Raising her head, she looked at the email she’d typed up onscreen, re-reading it for the tenth time in as many minutes. 

_From: Kate Stewart_

_To: <UNIT-ALL-PERSONNEL>_

_Subject: Essential Staff Briefing_

_You have marked this message as **Important.**_

_Chief Scientific Officer Kate Stewart would like to allay recent speculation regarding her sexual orientation. _

_In latter months, it has come to my attention that there is widespread ongoing debate surrounding my sexuality. Money has changed hands, and bets have been made._

_In the interest of squaring these bets and being open and honest with you all, I would like to publicly come out as a lesbian._

_Should you have any complaints regarding this matter, I am willing and ready to foster a dialogue, by which I mean send you on E&D training. Please refer to the Equality Act 2010 should you have any further issues._

_Regards,_

_Kate Stewart_

_Chief Scientific Officer_

_Unified Intelligence Taskforce_

She took a deep breath, scanning over the few short lines again and again and again. Was it too light-hearted? Too threatening? Too… well, too anything, in general?

She forced herself to exhale slowly, reaching for the mouse beside her and dithering for several long, agonising seconds. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her mouth felt uncomfortably dry as she did so, and she watched her hand tremble where it sat on the mouse, sweat breaking out across her forehead as she fought a wave of nausea. 

Before she could second-guess herself any further, she clicked ‘send.’ 

It was almost anticlimactic, watching the message pass from her Outbox to her Sent Items. There was a brief pause, and then a rapid stream of automatic replies flooded into her Inbox, and she swore under her breath as she began to hit delete, removing tens of out of office messages which appeared to have been sent with assistance from the TARDIS; she made an idle note on a Post-It beside her to have words with staff about switching off automatic replies when they returned to the office, as though this were a normal day and a normal thing to be doing, and then she leant back in her chair with a groan. 

This was a terrible idea. A really, really terrible idea. Why had she thought this was a good idea? Why had she even done this? Was it too late to recall the message? 

She leaned towards the screen and flicked through menus with increasing desperation, before discerning that recalling the email was impossible and letting out a long, horrified stream of swearwords. Getting to her feet, she stumbled out of her office and in the general direction of Osgood’s, thanking god that it was only next door. 

“Osgood,” she blurted as she stepped over the threshold, slamming the door behind her and leaning against it, panting as though she’d run a marathon. “Osgood, I’ve done something really, really stupid.” 

Osgood looked, to both her relief and annoyance, entirely impassive about Kate’s sudden, stricken appearance. She offered her boss a small frown, as though not understanding Kate’s anguish, before comprehension dawned. 

“Oh, is this about the email?” she asked in a bemused voice. 

“Yes, it’s ab-” Kate began loudly, then inhaled sharply and forced herself to continue in a more subdued voice: “Yes, it’s about the bloody email.” 

“No need to shout,” Osgood chided, giving her a rueful look. “What about it?”

“What… I…” Kate blinked at her in amazement, baffled that this intelligent woman could be so dense. “What…” 

“Kate, I’ve known you were gay since the first day I met you.” 

“But… but…” Kate’s mouth dropped open as she cast her mind back over the years. “That was…” 

“Fourteen years ago, yes,” Osgood grinned, tipping her a conspiratorial wink. “Just… call it a hunch. Happily, Emma from IT owes me a tenner now.” 

“How could you possibly…” 

“I might not bat for either team, but even a blind person could see you weren’t batting for dear old Tim.” 

“Ah,” Kate swallowed thickly, attempting a smile. “And you didn’t think to mention this… because?” 

“It wasn’t my place,” Osgood shrugged, pushing her glasses up her nose before continuing. “It was your journey to go on. I thought you were going to go public after you left the ex-husband, but this way is good too. Not very subtle, though. You know the Doctor is on that mailing list, don’t you?” 

“Oh, _fuck_,” Kate let out a wail of exasperation. “Why does she even _have _an email address? What even _is _it?” 

“I think it’s ‘TimeLord101@tardis.com’,” Osgood reeled off from memory, then smirked. “Missy’s was ‘whyareyoutimelord101@mytardisisbetter.com,’ which was funnier.” 

“Am I going to get a-” 

Kate’s phone rang as if on cue, and she extracted it from her pocket with a sense of trepidation. Answering it before she could check the caller ID and panic further, she raised it to her ear and said politely: 

“Hello?”

“Just got the email!” enthused Clara, while someone – and Kate strongly suspected she knew who – made loud whooping noises in the background. “Kate! You kept that bloody quiet! I mean, I’d figured it out, but… still. Blimey. Look at you, out and proud lesbian.” 

“I…” Kate rolled her eyes fondly. “Yeah, well, it’s not something I felt I could really broadcast before now, you know? Not in such a male-dominated role. And what do you mean, you figured it out?!” 

“The trouser suits were a giveaway.”

“What, are trouser suits just automatically gay?” 

“No, they’re not, but they are on you. And besides, I’m not an idiot; I could just tell. I can spot a fellow gay at 100 paces. Why are you telling the entirety of UNIT now, anyway? I kind of assumed they’d worked it out as well… at least half a decade ago. I know most of the Tech team have got bets going. I pity the poor saps who had money on you being heterosexual. Have people really not figured it out?” 

“No they have not – I don’t think, anyway – and, well… urm… I fell in love.” 

“With?” 

“Urm,” she cleared her throat uncomfortably, shifting from foot to foot and shooting Osgood a glare, which did nothing to assuage her colleague’s deeply unsubtle, overt interest in the call, although she continued to prod at… whatever it was she was prodding, while keeping half an eye on Kate. “An alien, actually.”

“It’s not my alien, is it?” Clara teased, and Kate laughed. 

“No, it’s, uh…” she felt her cheeks burn as she mumbled: “It’s Jac.” 

“Jac as in got-murdered-under-London-by-Bonnie-Jac?” 

“Yes, that Jac. Jac-who-had-a-duplicate-made-of-her-Jac.” 

“Blimey. You kept that even quieter than the gay thing.” 

“Well, I wasn’t going to broadcast it, was I? Didn’t need any accusations of… alien-shagging, or pro-alien bias. What with the Doctor, and Osgood, and now this…” 

“Point taken. The Doctor is thrilled, by the way,” Clara added, and the whooping got drastically, exponentially louder. “She actually fist pumped, then did a lap of the console room in a victory dance. It was kind of cute, in a really tragic way. Wait until I tell her about Jac… she’ll want an invite to the bloody wedding…” 

“Whoa, tiger,” Kate cautioned. “Let’s not get carried away with ourselves. I’ve done marriage once already, remember? And it crashed and burned.” 

“Well, he was a bloke, wasn’t he? That was your big mistake. If you _do _marry Jac, can I come to the wedding? In disguise, obviously… most of your employees do think I’m dead, it might be a bit of a nasty shock for them to find out I’m not. Don’t want to detract from you being the centre of attention in a bright-white trouser suit. Not that I think I could anyway, you’ve got the biggest BDE I’ve ever encountered.” 

“Clara!” Kate chuckled at the image, resolving to google what on earth ‘BDE’ was at a later date. “I suppose you can, but don’t hold your breath.”

“Chance’d be a fine thing,” Clara shot back brightly, then added: “Seriously, wishing you both every happiness together. May your alien bring you as much happiness – and occasional insanity – as mine.” 

“Thanks, Clara.” 

“And if you need us to hit anyone or launch any homophobes into supernovas, we can absolutely do that.” 

“Thanks, Clara.” 

“Now, go and check your emails.” 

“Why?” 

“Because the Doctor’s sent you a comprehensive list of space gay bars, and she’s on about a joint night out…”


End file.
